


Laundry Night is Horrible

by XenophonSpeaks



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Blow Jobs, College, Confrontation, Dorm Life - Freeform, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Frottage, M/M, Masturbation, Pining, eren's pov, light dominance powerplay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-08
Updated: 2015-08-08
Packaged: 2018-04-13 16:36:45
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 14,566
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4529253
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/XenophonSpeaks/pseuds/XenophonSpeaks
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An anger-fueled mistake on laundry night leads Eren into the strangest quest for friendship, and possibly something more, of his life.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by the wonderful Erejean Week blog, which is still posting weekly prompts for writers like me to have fun with. This week's prompt was Laundry, and as you can see, I was clearly inspired.
> 
> NOTE: The events in this store are basically entirely based on experiences I had in college. Like everything is shit that actually happened to me. I've taken some liberties with those experiences to make a cohesive story (for example, the guy I got into a fight with DID NOT end up being my friend at all, though I did make friends with the horror movie kid). 
> 
> I also wrote this entire thing while sick. I have no beta reader and I did all my own editing, so odds are, I missed something here. If you see a mistake, feel free to point it out so I can correct it.
> 
> Otherwise, please enjoy.

Eren hated laundry day. Hated it so much he usually put it off for as long as possible (which basically meant until he ran out of clean underwear). It wasn’t so much that he hated the act of doing laundry; he’d been really good about it when he lived back home.

He just really, really hated doing laundry in the dorms.

The dorm laundry room was a creepy black hole in the basement of the building where the lights flickered and the room smelled permanently of moldy socks and jock sweat. There were only five washing machines and eight dryers for over 480 students in the building, which mean that on any given day, you had to fight just to get a hold of a damn machine.

Which was how Eren found himself standing in the basement, alone, at 8PM on a Friday night, waiting for a machine to free up.

He sat in the corner on the only chair in the room, playing on his phone to pass the time. Several people came to pull their things out of the dryers but after twenty minutes, no one had come to move their stuff out of the washers.

One washer, the one closest to him, had actually been off since he’d first arrived. No one had showed up yet to move their clothing—an act which just served to piss Eren off. It wasn’t hard to set an alarm on your phone or something to remind you to come move your laundry out of the machines. Not to mention that _everyone_ knew how hard it was to fight to do your laundry and how annoying it was to wait, especially on the weekends when the majority of the dorms had the time to do theirs.

Eren was startled out of his thoughts as someone entered the room with a full basket in hand. It took him a moment to realize who it was, hidden as they were behind a large stack of clothing. “Oh. Hey, Armin. I thought you were studying with Bert and Annie tonight for that chem test next week?”

He watched Armin struggle to set his basket down without the mound of clothing toppling over before turning to give him a weary smile. “They were, uh. Busy apparently.”

“With each other?”

“Yes.”

“Like… _with_ each other though?”

“That is certainly what Reiner made it sound like.”

Eren laughed, leaning back in the chair and crossing his arms over the basket he still had in his lap. “Well you can just chill out in the dungeon here with me then.”

Armin grimaced, looking around at all the taken washers. “Again? Seriously?”

“Yeah,” Eren groused, scowling. “I’ve been down here for at least half an hour now and still nothing.”

Armin sighed, coming to lean against the wall on his left before sliding down and sitting on the floor. “What a way to spend a Friday night. I should have brought my calculus book.”

“You could go grab it. I’ll watch your stuff. It’s not like I’m going anywhere anytime soon,” Eren offered, shrugging.

Armin just shook his head, clearly too comfortable to make the trek back up to his room on the 6th floor. “I’ll wait until my stuffs going in a machine before I grab it.”

So they sat there. Waiting. Armin asked Eren how his political science class was going, and Eren told him it was a waste of money and that he would probably learn more from doing independent research. Armin told Eren about how he was actually really struggling with his science fiction and lit class, largely because Armin was a lot more interested in nonfiction than he was in fictional stories and had trouble remembering to read the required material because “it’s too much like fun and not enough like actual school work, I just keep forgetting to do it.”

After another fifteen minutes had passed, Eren was finally reaching the end of his patience.

“Fuck this, I’ve been here for almost an hour now and whoever the fuck this machine belongs to, they _still_ haven’t come to empty it out and put it in the dryer,” he seethed, standing.

Armin instantly looked braced for a problem. “Yeah, that’s a pretty dick move, but—hey, what are you doing?”

Eren was currently flinging wet clothing into the empty basket that was sitting on top of the machine. “Helping.”

“I’m pretty sure that’s not helping anyone, Eren.”

“Sure it is. It’s helping me. Look,” he said, dropping the wet clothing onto the table in the center of the room with a wet plop. “Now there’s an open machine and I can start cleaning my own clothes. _Very_ helpful.”

Armin sighed, eyes squeezed shut as he rubbed his forehead. “Yeah. I somehow don’t think whoever those belong to will agree with you.”

“Who gives a shit? If some selfish asshole wants to leave their shit in the wash all night with no regard over how that’s screwing over anyone else, why should I care?”

Armin just looked quietly pained as Eren poured detergent over his own clothes and put coins into the machine, starting the cycle with a look of triumph.

“I really don’t think that was a good idea, Eren,” Armin said with a sinking feeling.

Immediately, a guy with an undercut rounded the corner and walked into the room, headphones blaring loud enough that Eren could hear some kind of obnoxious electronic reggae music emanating from them from a good ten feet away.

He proceeded to completely ignore them both, bobbing his annoying two-toned hair to the beat as he crossed the room to stop before Eren’s washer. The chilled out look he’d been wearing before was immediately replaced with a look of rage.

“Oh, no,” Eren heard Armin whisper from the floor.

“What the fuck?” the guy said, ripping the headphones from his head and turning to look around the room. He quickly spotted his clothing on the table. “Who the fuck moved my shit?”

Eren felt frozen, sweat breaking out on the back of his neck, knowing he’d fucked up and that a confrontation was imminent.

But as he looked at the guy and his lazy, devil-may-care kind of attire and his _stupid fucking music_ that was still coming out of the headphones around his neck, Eren remembered _why_ he’d moved the laundry in the first place.

He ground his teeth together, his ire returning to him in a rush.

“ _I_ moved it, you fucking asshole. I’d been sitting here waiting for a machine for an _entire hour_ and yours has been done since before I even showed up,” he spat, taking a step towards the guy.

The guy’s gaze snapped up to his, amber eyes burning with indignation. “I don’t give a damn how long you’ve been waiting, that doesn’t give you the right to touch my stuff!”

“Why should I be considerate of you if you’re not going to be considerate of everyone else who has to wait on your lazy ass to do their own laundry?”

“Fuck you, you can’t just—“

“Hey, guys, look,” Armin suddenly cut in, jumping up and grabbing the basket of wet clothes off the table before dumping them unceremoniously in an empty dryer. He quickly put coins in the machine before kicking it on. “See? Problem solved. Eren did a stupid thing, and we’ll pay for your dryer, ok? He’s sorry.”

Eren blinked, suddenly realizing how close he was to the other guy, who had his hand fisted in the front of Eren’s shirt like he was about to hit him. Armin gently pried the guys fingers off, quickly pulling Eren toward the door. “Really, really sorry,” Armin repeated.

“Fuck you, I don’t need your money,” the guy yelled, chucking a handful of quarters in their direction.

A quarter hit Armin in the shoulder.

Eren saw red.

“Who the _fuck_ throws money at someone trying to be nice? Huh?” Eren yelled, breaking out of Armin’s grip and storming back toward the center of the room. “What are you, fucking twelve? Act like a goddamn adult! I’m the one who moved your stupid clothes, so don’t you _dare_ throw something at Armin, do you fucking hear me?”

Eren was so pissed he could feel himself shaking with it. How dare someone try and hurt Armin, how _dare he throw something at his best friend_ —

“Fine,” the guy said, looking away, face still red but now looking somewhat ashamed. “I-- I shouldn’t have thrown—I’m,” he broke off, clearly still struggling to get his anger under control.

“It’s fine,” Armin rushed to reassure him, hand back on Eren’s elbow and trying to drag him away again. “It’s totally fine, we get it.”

Eren suddenly noted he was pretty close up in the guy’s face. He couldn’t even remember how he’d gotten there. He deliberately unclenched his fists, taking a deep breath.

“Look, I’m sorry,” Eren said, looking away. “I shouldn’t have moved your stuff. I got mad and didn’t really think about it too much.”

“S’fine,” the guy mumbled, clearly uncomfortable.

No one moved. The awkward tension in the room was so palpable Eren felt like he could probably push against it with his hand if he tried.

“Ok,” Armin said, nearly tripping Eren in his haste to pull him toward the elevators. “Sorry again. Bye.”

Once they were both inside the elevator, Armin rounded on him, furious. Eren raised his hands defensively, making a choked sound as he backed up against the wall.

“Listen to me next time,” was all Armin said venomously.

Eren nodded, eyes wide. That was probably a good idea.

 

\---

 

When they went back to move Eren’s laundry over to the dryer half an hour later, the guy was blessedly nowhere to be found. They started Armin’s load next and ran back up to his dorm to wait everything out, and between moving things around for the rest of the night, they never did run into him again.

Eren felt conflicted about that. Part of him was grateful because he wasn’t really looking for another conflict, but part of him was also upset because he felt like he needed to make amends somehow.

In the following week he looked around on campus, hoping to glimpse the guy. They lived in the same damn building, so the odds of them running into one another were fairly high, Eren reasoned. He even sat outside on the bench in front of the dorm building a few times, “just studying” he told Armin defensively.

A week later and Eren was starting to wonder if his mysterious laundry fight hadn’t actually been with a ghost.

A week later also meant that Eren was out of clean underwear again. He’d ripped a pair of his boxers so badly that they were no longer functional (wrestling with Mikasa was a bad idea for a lot of reasons, and this was just one of many) and another pair had finally bit the dust when the elastic had fallen out of them Monday morning on his way to class. While wearing gym shorts. Suffice to say that Eren had high tailed it back to his room and found something else to wear instead.

 _I should probably buy some new clothes_ , he thought to himself, looking at the holes in his socks as the elevator opened to the basement floor.

Immediately Eren heard the sounds of gruesome shrieking and froze, cautiously peering out of the elevator door.

The hallway was dark. Which wasn’t exactly unusual. The only light that came from the hall was the red light of the emergency exit at the far end, as well as the light that filtered out of the open laundry room door, flickering and casting strange shadows on the brick wall.

He took a few steps forward in the silence before the screaming suddenly started again, only this time Eren realized he could hear music accompanying it.

He rounded the corner into the laundry room, tension still set in his shoulders, only to find the guy from the week before sitting in the corner on his laptop, apparently watching a movie. A horror movie, if the discordant music and blood curdling shrieking was anything to go by.

“Yo,” Eren said cautiously, and the guy looked up, startled. “Uh. Sorry.”

As Eren watched, the guy seemed to force himself into a casual and relaxed pose again. He gave Eren a polite nod before turning back to the screen of his laptop.

Swallowing and trying to ignore the uncomfortable atmosphere, Eren walked over to find one of the machines already empty. He started filling it with clothes, casting wary glances at the guy in the corner every so often.

The guy barely seemed to notice him, eyes wide and intently focused on the screen. Once Eren started he machine going, he very clearly heard the phrase “I want to play a game” float out of the guy’s laptop.

“Are you watching Saw?” Eren blurted out, stepping closer in an attempt to hear better.

The guy glanced at Eren in surprise before scowling. “Why do you care?”

“Oh. Uh, no reason. I just, “ _I really love horror movies and Saw is a classic_ , “It’s a pretty good movie is all.”

Eren turned away, leaning against a nearby machine awkwardly. Just when Eren was about to go back upstairs and grab a book or something, the guy suddenly broke the quiet by patting the chair next to where he sat on the floor.

“You can watch too. If you want,” he said, shifting around awkwardly and not actually looking up at Eren.

This seemed like some kind of peace offering. A gesture of forgiveness. Eren was willing to accept the invitation on those grounds alone, but the longer he looked at this guy –his shaggy two-toned hair not long enough to cover his amber eyes, which were still wide and focused entirely on the movie—Eren started to suspect that this guy was in fact kind of—

“Are you scared?”

He didn’t mean for it to sound mocking or mean. It was an honest question, but the minute the words were out of his mouth, he realized how they would be taken.

He received a gaze so dagger-filled it probably would have killed poor Armin had it been directed at him. “ _No,_ I am not scared, you dick, I just thought you might want to—“

Eren flopped down heavily in the chair, crossing his arms and leaning back to get a better angle of the screen. “Have you eaten dinner yet?”

He watched the guys gaze flicker up at him in confusion. “No?”

“Do you like pizza?”

“Who the fuck doesn’t like pizza?”

“Cool. I’ll order us some then,” Eren finished, pulling out his phone and dialing Dominoes, ordering a large cheese because honestly who didn’t like cheese?

When he flipped his phone shut, he looked down to find the laptop had been angled to give him a much better view, and that the guy was now leaning slightly against the leg of his chair.

Eren smiled, leaning back to wait for the pizza to arrive and feeling like he’d done something right.

 

\---

 

Later that night, laundry done and stomach full of pizza, Eren finally realized he’d neglected to do something very important.

In the two hours they spent watching Saw and eating pizza quietly together, he had never asked laundry guy his name.

Eren thought the severe burn of regret in his stomach was probably unwarranted. Probably just indigestion from all the pizza.

That didn’t stop him from tossing and turning for another hour before finally falling into a fitful sleep.

 

\---

 

“So basically you made a friend,” Armin said the next day over lunch in the cafeteria.

Eren stabbed his pasta angrily with a fork. “I hardly think we’re friends. We almost beat the hell out of each other the first time. Two hours of watching a scary movie doesn’t exactly erase that. Besides, I don’t even know his name.”

“You watched a movie together. For two hours.”

“Well, yeah.”

“And you did your laundry together.”

“Uh.”

“And you bought him a pizza.”

“It seemed like the right thing to do!”

“And you don’t think that’s kind of a start of a friendship?” Armin asked in mild exasperation over his cup of coffee.

Eren sulked. He didn’t really think so, but when you put it like that, well. Maybe.

“Whatever. It was a one-time thing anyway,” he said, standing up to put away his tray.

Armin just rolled his eyes. “I don’t believe that and neither do you.”

It was definitely a one-time thing.

 

\---

 

It wasn’t a one-time thing.

“Laundry night again, huh,” Eren said from where he sat in the corner of the laundry room.

“Yeah,” the guy said, starting the process of getting a machine going.

“That’s cool. Do you always do laundry on Fridays?”

The guy shot him a strange look. “Recently, I guess.”

Eren nodded, overcome by the realization of just how _bad_ he was at social interactions like this. How did people even make friends? How had Eren ever made a friend in his entire life? He couldn’t remember anything even slightly useful for this kind of thing.

 _Might as well just wing it then_ , he decided.

“I didn’t catch your name last time,” Eren said, playing with the hole in his jeans nervously. Was that a smooth way to ask? It seemed smooth.

“Yeah, probably because I never told you,” the guy replied dryly.

Not smooth. Definitely not smooth.

“Well _excuse me_ for trying to be polite, jesus,” he muttered, looking away, because something about that smirk was making his stomach feel weird.

A minute later he felt something settle in the chair next to his head. Turning, he saw it was a laptop.

“Go ahead and turn it on,” the guy was saying, pulling a phone out of his pocket and dialing a number. “I brought Saw II this time. You liked cheese, right, Eren?”

Eren nodded dumbly, belatedly picking up the laptop and opening the screen to find the movie already set up and ready to go.

He remembered his name. Eren couldn’t ever remember telling it to him, but now that he thought about it, Armin had said it during their original altercation. Er, meeting.

Something in his stomach felt even weirder, and Eren was bothered by the fact that it wasn’t an entirely unwelcome sensation.

“Pizza’ll be here in 20,” said the guy, dropping heavily into the chair. He shuffled his foot awkwardly for a moment before adding, “I’m Jean.”

Eren felt off-balance in a way he normally didn’t. Hadn’t ever, maybe. He wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so he did the only thing he could think of.

“Nice of you to share. I was about to start calling you horseface.”

Jean snorted, settling back against the plastic and shaking his head. “That’s not even clever. You wouldn’t be the first.”

“It’s a better name than Jean.”

“Jean’s a better name than Eren. Eren sounds girly.”

“Jean sounds like a pair of pants. Look, I’m wearing you,” he said, gesturing to his lower half.

Jean eyed the holes Eren had been fidgeting with earlier. “I’m much more attractive than those are.”

“Whatever,” Eren said, pressing play on the laptop to end the conversation because he couldn’t come up with an argument against that and he was suddenly filled with the realization of just how attractive Jean actually was. If you were into that hipster, assholish type of guy.

Which Eren was _not._

The stupid feeling in his stomach got stronger. Eren decided he was probably just really hungry and let himself get sucked into the world of the movie before he could think about it too much.

 

\---

 

The following week, Eren was prepared to ask for help, because he was rapidly coming to the conclusion that he had no idea how the hell to actually make a friend to save his life.

“Are you sure this is a friends thing?” Mikasa asked him that morning in their shared intro to geology class.

“What do you mean by that?” he groused, sinking down into the plush chairs of the auditorium—an incredibly bad choice in furnishings for a 9AM class, and one that had led to him sleeping through a majority of the lectures.

“You kind of sound like you have a crush is what I mean,” Mikasa had deadpanned, pulling out her notebook as if nothing about that statement was even slightly offensive.

“I do not—I don’t have a _crush_ on the guy who _threw quarters are Armin_ ,” Eren hissed, crossing his arms and suddenly very, very awake.

“He apologized, didn’t he? Besides, you were kind of an asshole first from what Armin told me.”

“Armin is biased.”

“Against you?”

“He’s always biased against me.”

Mikasa huffed a quiet laugh. “I think Armin is the only person who isn’t biased in your favor. He’s entirely neutral, and that’s the only reason you get mad about it.”

“He just doesn’t want me to have any fun.”

“Don’t change the topic,” Mikasa said, taking a long drink from her travel mug of coffee before turning to pin Eren with an all too serious look—a too serious look Eren knew too well. “You’re doing that thing again where you’re not being honest with yourself. It’s pissing me off.”

“Why would that piss you off?”

“Because it usually spells out trouble for everyone around you later at some point.”

Eren refused to respond, glaring at the front of the room until the professor came in and started the lecture and steadfastly ignoring the stupid feeling in his stomach again.

He hated – _hated_ —when Mikasa had a good point. Which was regrettably more or less always.

This wasn’t helping his quest to figure out how to make friends at all.

 

\---

 

“Just ask him about himself,” Armin said distractedly from his desk on Thursday night. “What do you even know about him?”

“Well I don’t know _much_ , that’s why I’m asking you for advice. How do you talk to people and like… make friends and shit?”

“Well first you have to actually talk to them.”

“Armin,” he whined, rolling onto his back where he was stationed on Armin’s bed. “Seriously. I don’t know how to do this stuff. I’ve never been good at making friends.”

“I know. That was the first thing your dad told me about you when I met him.”

“Shut up, I’m being serious.”

“So am I.”

When Eren started to make a high pitched whine that only grew louder in intensity, Armin sighed, taking off his glasses and leaning back in his chair to give Eren a look.

“Why are you so worked up over this?”

Eren chewed his lip, frowning. He had asked himself the same question but wasn’t sure if he really wanted to know the answer.

“Eren, you’re the most stubborn person I’ve ever met. The fact that you won’t just… just _ask him_ stuff doesn’t even make sense to me. I have legitimately never seen you like this.”

Eren’s frowned deepened, that weird feeling in his stomach returning and gnawing at him.

“Are you sure this is just a friend thing?” Armin asked gently.

“Oh my god, not you too,” Eren groaned, covering his face with his arms.

“I’m just making sure,” Armin said, leaning forward in his chair to ruffle Eren’s hair. “Because it’s ok to have a crush on him, you know? I’m not mad at him. He seems pretty cool.”

“Armin, he threw a handful of quarters at you, what the fuck.”

“That was honestly mostly your fault. I don’t blame him.”

Eren sighed.

Armin turned back to the table, putting his glasses on again. “Just try it, ok? Ask him stuff. See where it goes. What do you have to lose anyway?”

Eren wasn’t sure, but it felt like it could potentially be something important.

 

\---

 

Friday night. Eren walked down the stairs rather than taking the elevator, hoping it might help clear his head. Or at least make the weird feeling go away.

When he rounded the corner and saw Jean sitting on the floor waiting for him, it felt like his heart jumped up to hammer somewhere in his throat.

 _Fuck. It’s not a crush_ , he swore internally, walking up to the machines and noticing they were all still full. He set his stuff down on the table in the middle of the room instead, finally turning to look at Jean.

“How was your week?” He blurted out, feeling his face heat a little.

Jean looked up at him, looking a little relieved somehow. “Good. I passed a calc test with a B, so that was cool.”

“Oh, that’s awesome. Good job,” Eren said, walking to lean against the machine nearest to Jean. “Uh, what’s your major?”

“Comp Sci. What about you?” Jean asked, turning to give Eren his full attention in a way that made Eren feel pleasantly warm but also too self-aware.

“I’m a civil engineering major right now,” Eren started, fidgeting with a hole in the hem of his shirt this time. “But I don’t really like it a lot so I’m thinking of changing it.”

“Oh yeah? To what?”

“Um. Haven’t really decided yet.”

He watched Jean run his hand through his hair. _Fidgeting_ , Eren realized.

“Well, what kind of stuff do you like?” he asked.

Eren stepped forward to cautiously sit down next to Jean on the floor, ignoring the perfectly good chair that was on his other side. He saw the tips of Jean’s ears turn red, and it suddenly caught his eye that Jean had several piercings.

“I actually really like psychology,” Eren said quietly, because that wasn’t something he had ever admitted out loud to anyone else.

“Oh, what kind?” Jean asked. “Clinical, counseling, social, or what?”

Eren just kind of stared, dumbfounded and thoroughly impressed.

“I, uh, took, took a few psych courses myself last year. They were pretty cool,” Jean said nonchalantly, clearly uncomfortable under Eren’s gaze.

“I—I really love _all_ of them,” Eren gushed in a rush, waving his hands around animatedly as he spoke. “I mean health psychology is really amazing but requires a lot more schooling and I don’t know if I’m smart enough for it, and cultural psychology just seems so beneficial and I don’t think nearly enough people are exposed to it, but social psychology is also super cool and there are some fascinating studies about—why are you looking at me like that?”

Jean was staring at him, open mouthed and a little flustered. “Nothing. You’re just really—I mean I like how passionate you are about it. You should totally switch your major.”

Eren looked away, willing his heart to calm down. For a moment he had been convinced Jean was about to call him cute or something, but surely he wouldn’t. Eren wasn’t cute anyway, more like obnoxious and stubborn.

“You could tell me more. If you wanted,” Jean prompted, looking across the room as well.

“Really?”

“Yeah. It’d be cool to like, know more about you and stuff,” Jean said, his eyebrows suddenly furrowing. “But only because it makes you sound less stupid when you talk about smart shit instead of horror movies for once.”

“What the fuck? I thought you liked when I spoiled what was about to happen next because it didn’t scare you as bad.”

“I’m not scared of horror movies you twat, now tell me about some cool studies before I throw a dirty sock at you.”

Three hours later found them both shoulder to shoulder, looking up their favorite memes online and laughing through mouthfuls of pizza.

They didn’t watch a scary movie that night. Eren couldn’t say that he minded much.

 

\---

 

A few days later, Eren was doing yoga in his dorm room while his roommate –Connie, one of the funniest and weirdest people Eren had ever met—was out doing parkour with his friend Sasha. Well, maybe girlfriend Sasha. Sasha was definitely something to Connie but Eren hadn’t really nailed down the details just yet.

Tuesday afternoon parkour was A Thing for them, so every Tuesday afternoon Eren liked to utilize the alone time to do things he was usually embarrassed to do when Connie was around.

Which was why Eren was currently doing yoga shirtless and in his boxer briefs in the middle of their room.

His concentration was interrupted by a sudden knocking on the door. He figured it was probably just Connie or Sasha coming back to grab something they’d forgotten, but when he swung the door open it was to an open-mouthed Jean instead.

“Uh,” Jean said eloquently, starring at Eren like he’d never really had a chance to look at him before. Eren fought the urge to shy away from his gaze. He didn’t have a reason to feel embarrassed anyway, people walked around like this on their floor all the time.

“What are you doing here? Better yet, how the hell do you know where I live?” Eren asked, leaning against the door.

Jean appeared to come back to his senses, his face snapping into a defensive scowl. “I ran into that other guy, Armin, on my way back from class and asked him where you lived.”

Armin. Of course it was Armin.

“I was gonna ask if you like maybe wanted to go get some coffee or something. I was kind of craving some, so. But if you’re busy running around in your underwear or don’t want to go out that’s fine, I’ll just—“

“No, no, that’s cool,” Eren rushed to reassure him, opening the door wide enough to allow Jean through. “Come on in and I’ll, um, let me put some real people clothing on.”

Jean snorted, walking past Eren and before stopping abruptly and looking around the room in a state of mild awe. “Whoa.”

“Huh? Oh. Yeah. Uh, Connie is pre-med but he’s really into art. And I really like it too, so we kind of… decorated a lot.”

The room was covered from wall to wall. Pictures, posters, paintings, drawings, and internet printouts covered the walls in a variety of colors and moods. Eren’s half of the room consisted mostly of band posters and nature pictures, most notably ocean photos and thunderstorms, while Connie’s half of the room consisted mainly of graffiti art and other personal works he’d done himself. They had strung up lights all around the edges of the room, giving everything a soft and welcoming glow.

The rest of the room was generally a total mess though. Clothing, papers, and food wrappers littered just about every surface. Eren resisted the urge to kick several empty cup ramen containers under his bed and instead focused on locating a clean pair of pants and a shirt.

“This is… surprisingly cool,” Jean was mumbling. “I would spend all of my time here if this were my room.”

“Well, you can come visit whenever. If you want to, I mean,” Eren said, sliding on a pair of jeans and zipping them up. He turned his head to glance at Jean, finding his gaze locked onto Eren’s backside before quickly looking at something on the wall. Eren felt the weird stomach feeling flare full force and quietly admitted to himself that he really, really needed to do something about this because ignoring it didn’t seem to be doing him any favors.

“Yeah. Sure. That’d be cool,” Jean said, shuffling his feet.

“Right. So,” Eren said, pulling on a shirt and dropping down onto his bed to start lacing up his shoes. “Where did you want to go?”

 

\---

 

It turned out Jean had no idea what he actually wanted to do beyond acquiring coffee, so the two of them wandered campus, two large mugs in hand as they walked around and bickered.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. You seriously have never been to the Blue Beagle?”

“What’s so weird about that? I didn’t even know it existed until just now first of all,” Jean said, making an obvious attempt to step on Eren’s shoelace. “Besides, I’m kind of shit at art.”

“That’s the entire point. You spend like $10 to paint a piece of ceramic and then you and your friends can laugh about it forever. It’s amazing.”

“Whatever, I still think it sounds weird,” Jean said, taking a long sip of his latte.

“You’re weird. You’ll just have to come with me sometime then,” Eren said before his brain caught up with his mouth, causing him to snort some of his coffee and break into a horrible coughing fit.

Jean burst into loud guffaws of laughter. “You’re supposed to drink coffee, Eren. It’s a beverage, not a drug,” he said, patting him on the back.

“That’s debatable,” Eren wheezed, tears leaking from his eyes as he struggled to regain the ability to breathe properly.

“I guess so,” Jean hummed, clearly amused. Eren tried to ignore the phantom feeling of Jean’s hand still burning into his back.

They started walking again, a tension in the air now that Eren couldn’t quite put his finger on.

“I wouldn’t mind,” Jean finally said as they neared their dorm building again.

“Mind what?”

“Going. With you. To do the painting thing, I mean,” Jean clarified, throwing his empty cup in the trash.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Anyway, thanks for coming with me,” Jean said, kicking at a rock. Eren tried very, very hard not to look at the way the setting sun was catching in Jean’s hair.

The weird stomach feeling told him he was failing miserably.

“No problem. Thanks for inviting me. Just don’t show up unannounced next time,” Eren said, shoving Jean lightly in the shoulder and definitely not because he had a sudden and overwhelming urge to just touch him somehow.

“Not my fault I only ever run into you in the laundry room,” Jean groused.

“Well give me your number then.”

Eren snorted a laugh when Jean slipped off the edge of the sidewalk and nearly fell into a bush.

“Here,” Eren said, handing him his phone once he’d righted himself again. “Just put your contact info in and I’ll send you a text so you’ll have mine too. Then you can just text me next time.”

Eren stood there awkwardly as Jean typed in his phone number before handing his phone back to Eren. Eren looked at the new contact info. “Kirschtein, huh?”

“Yeah,” Jean said. “What’s yours?”

“You’ll have to wait to find out,” Eren said, grinning before setting off toward the stairs. “See you Friday, horseface.”

He pounded up the stairs rapidly, letting off some steam and willing the weird feeling to chill the fuck out before opening the door to his floor. He stopped beside it long enough to shoot off a text.

[Eren]: it’s Jaeger. as in Jaegerbomb.

When he finally got into his room, he noticed Connie was still out. He pulled off his shoes, flopping gracelessly onto his own bed as he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket. He tried not to be too eager as he pulled it out, reading the text.

[Jean Kirschtein]: ur not nearly cool enough to have such a cool name.

[Eren Jaeger]: don’t be an asshole.

[Jean Kirschtein]: says the guy who called me horseface five minutes ago.

Eren grinned, burying his face in his pillow and feeling like a complete idiot as the weird feeling in his stomach burned stronger than ever.

 _Yeah, might be a crush,_ he finally admitted to himself.

Mikasa was never going to let him hear the end of it.

 

\---

 

“I _knew_ it, I so called it,” she said the next morning as they left the lecture hall.

“Shut up or I won’t tell you shit anymore.”

“Of course you will. You love me.”

“You’re lucky I do or I’d probably punch you.”

“The only reason you don’t punch me is because you know I’d punch back,” Mikasa said, flexing her arm and leveling him with a look.

Eren rolled his eyes. “Well that’s another good reason not to, obviously, but the family thing kind of trumps that.”

Mikasa laughed her huffing laugh, throwing an arm around him and giving him a brief squeeze.

“Are you going to actually help me or are you just going to laugh at me?”

“You seem like you’re doing pretty well on your own, honestly,” Mikasa said, settling down as they headed back towards the dorms. “I mean you’ve already been on a date. He’s seen you mostly naked. And you gave him your phone number. What more do you want me to do?”

Eren flushed, shoving her and feeling frustrated when she barely moved. “We did not—that wasn’t a _date_ , we just went out for coffee and walked around and shit.”

“Eren, I don’t know how to break this to you, but that’s a classic first date,” she said, raising an eyebrow imperiously.

He frowned, thinking about it. He supposed that was true.

“So that wasn’t just a friends thing?” He voiced.

Mikasa frowned beside him. “Well, it could be. I mean friends do that too. But you guys clearly like each other.”

“How do you know? You haven’t even met him!”

“Woman’s intuition,” she said, waving her hand in the air as though that explained everything. Which it probably did. “You need to just turn up the flirting. Put some of the classic Jaeger moves on him.”

“What classic Jaeger moves?” he asked, bewildered.

“I don’t know, you tell me,” she said with a shrug, jogging ahead of him a few feet. “I’ve got to hurry if I want to make it to practice on time. Give me a status report on what happens later.”

“Yeah, yeah, enjoy beating the hell out of Annie again,” Eren said, rolling his eyes because he knew she would. Those two had a really strange sort of rivalry-friendship in martial arts that Eren couldn’t quite wrap his head around, but they seemed happy with it, so he figured it was fine.

“Will do!” she called before taking off at a run and rapidly disappearing out of Eren’s sight.

Eren felt his phone vibrate in his pocket.

[Jean Kirschtein]: i had a nightmare about Saw last night and i don’t know if i can handle watching another one. we should pick a different movie.

[Eren Jaeger]: leave it to me. i have plenty of horror movies to choose from. ever heard of The Cube?

[Jean Kirschtein]: that sounds rly stupid.

[Eren Jaeger]: tell me that after you’ve watched it.

[Jean Kirschtein]: i s2g if i have another nightmare i’m holding u personally responsible.

[Eren Jaeger]: don’t worry, i’ll hold your hand during the scary parts.

Eren bit his lip, hitting send on the last text. He hoped that wasn’t too forward. Or too weird. He still wasn’t entirely convinced Jean was interested in him like that. What if he said something stupid or creepy and scared Jean off?

He felt his phone vibrate again.

[Jean Kirschtein]: u’d better u asshole.

He couldn’t keep himself from grinning stupidly the rest of the way to his room.

 

\---

 

The next night, when Eren walked down to the laundry room, he had an actual game plan.

“Hey, Jean,” he said, dropping his stuff on top of a washer. He noticed it was conveniently empty and began dumping his stuff into it, throwing in a bit of detergent before popping in a few coins to get it going. “I had an idea. Let’s watch a movie in my room instead of just sitting here on the floor so we don’t kill our backs this time.”

He hedged a glance in Jean’s direction, finding him looking back at him, wide-eyed.

“We don’t have to if you don’t want to, I just figured I’d offer just in case.”

“No, that’s—that’s probably a good idea. Thanks,” Jean said, standing before putting his hands on his hips and leaning back in an apparent effort to work some of the stiffness out of his joints. “Floor isn’t exactly comfortable.”

“Yeah,” said Eren softly, trying not to stare. “Yeah, that’s exactly what I was thinking. Is your stuff in the wash already?”

“Yep.”

“Nice. Then order the pizza. It’s your turn to pay,” Eren said before turning around to walk back toward the elevators, Jean shuffling along behind him.

 _Yes!_ Eren thought excitedly, pressing the button to his floor with extra vigor.

It suddenly hit him that he’d been so worried about what Jean would say that he now had no idea how to proceed from here.

 _Fuck_.

 

\---

 

Twenty minutes later and they were happily curled up against the wall on Eren’s bed, laptop open and balanced on their knees while they ate cheese pizza.

“This movie is ridiculous,” Jean mumbled around a slice, eyes glued to the screen in mild horror, as usual.

“I think what you meant to say was ‘this movie is a gift,’ because that’s exactly what it is,” Eren said, eyes lingering on Jean’s face, taking in the way his eyes glowed with the light of the screen, the way the light seemed to hug the curve of his cheek so nicely, the way he licked his lips after a bite of pizza.

Eren swallowed thickly, looking away. _Chill out there, friend. Damn_.

“The entire movie is just them moving from one square to another square,” Jean whined, jolting against Eren’s shoulder as someone was torn in half.

Eren laughed. “I didn’t realize you found squares so terrifying. Do you need me to hold your hand?”

He felt Jean freeze up next to him and was suddenly worried he’d said something completely wrong.

“Ah, actually, I can’t. I need both of my hands right now, sorry,” he said, grabbing the last slice of pizza out of the box in a rush.

“Hey, you asshole, you already ate your fair share!”

Eren licked a long stripe across the top of the piece of pizza before holding it up to Jean’s face with a grin. “Oh, my bad. Here, all yours.”

“You fucking— _fine_ ,” Jean bit, sounding determined, grabbing Eren’s wrist. The contact sent Eren’s heart tripping over itself.

As he watched, Jean’s eyes locked with his as he slowly leaned forward, taking a bite out of the pizza. He chewed and swallowed, licking his lips exaggeratedly, never once breaking eye contact.

Rather than butterflies in his stomach this time, Eren felt a decidedly strong reaction in the region of his groin instead, mouth hanging open in shock.

“Thanks,” Jean said smartly, finally letting go of Eren’s wrist with a self-satisfied smirk as he turned back to the movie. “You can have the rest though.”

Eren found himself suddenly very, very hungry, and for something that had absolutely nothing to do with food.

He shoved the pizza into his mouth instead, chewing moodily as he tried in vain to focus on watching the movie.

That night he slept fitfully, waking up too hot in his own skin, the image of Jean’s mouth seemingly branded to the back of his eyelids.


	2. Chapter 2

“So you invited him to your room but you didn’t make out?”

“Mikasa, be nice,” Armin chided, taking another bite of toast.

“What happened to the classic Jaeger moves?” she said, poking at his forehead where it was buried between his arms with the end of her cereal spoon.

Eren just groaned, burying his head further.

“Well at least you made some progress. I mean you did get him to come to your room. And he was clearly flirting with you,” Armin said, chewing thoughtfully.

“Are you sure though?” Eren said, voice muffled. “What if he was just teasing me. He’s kind of an asshole like that. I mean, I did panic and steal his pizza.”

“You don’t tease like that unless you’re into someone _like that_ ,” Mikasa said, leaning back in her chair and stretching. “I think it was a challenge. You need to rise to the occasion.”

“The what?” Eren said, raising his head to look at her with bleary, sleep-deprived eyes.

“You need to do one better. Up your flirt game. Git gud.”

“Oh my god, you need to stop playing so much Call of Duty.”

“And you need to get laid, my dear brother. Come on. Step it up.”

“She’s right, Eren,” Armin agreed. “You have to do something to let him know you’re definitely interested. So far you’ve done a lot of hinting but you haven’t really demonstrated anything concrete.”

“What does that even _mean,_ oh my god, I have no idea what I’m doing,” he said, dropping his head back onto the table with an audible thump.

“Hey, stop that,” Mikasa said, swatting him in the arm. “You need all the brain cells you can get to seduce this guy.”

Eren’s groan this time sounded truly pained.

“Why haven’t you actually kissed him yet?” Armin asked, reaching out to pat Eren’s head in a familiar way that had him melting into the table. “That would kind of leave no room for doubts, you know.”

“I don’t know, I’m nervous, I guess. I’m worried I’ll screw something up. I’m especially worried he just wants to be friends and I’m going to ruin it by being gay as hell.”

“You’re gay as hell all the time, Eren, if that were going to be a problem I think it already would have been.”

“Armin!”

“I’m just being realistic, Eren!”

Eren stood up, grabbing his bag from the back of his chair. “You both are assholes and I don’t know why I even talk to you.”

“Because you love us,” Mikasa sang, reaching up as if to pinch his cheeks. He swatted her away.

“Whatever, I’m going to the library to study for a while.”

“Eren, it’s 10AM on a Saturday.”

“Exactly. I need to not think about this for a few hours. Text me if you need something,” he said, turning and walking off with a wave.

Mikasa watched him go with a frown.

“He’ll be fine,” Armin reassured her, kicking at her lightly under the table. “He’s just stubborn. Especially about his own emotions.”

“I know,” she groused, sinking deeper into her chair with a sigh. “It’s just painful to watch.”

Armin hummed in agreement, watching Eren’s retreating form and shaking his head.

 

\---

 

Eren sat steadfastly in a corner of the library’s second floor for three full hours before finally admitting that he wasn’t actually able to focus on anything and finally threw in the towel.

His stomach felt like it was about to eat itself, growling so loud he was starting to garner concerned looks from the library attendants wandering around, so he decided lunch was probably a good idea.

Grabbing his bag and shoving his notebook in –the only thing he’d accomplished in the last three hours was doodling eyes in the margins of pages of history notes, eyes which he noted with distaste bore a striking resemblance to Jean’s—he walked past the balcony of the library, looking down below disinterestedly before doing a double take and recognizing a mop of shaggy blond hair seated near the entrance.

Of course he would finally run into him somewhere. Especially when he was trying not to think about him for once.

 _I could just ignore him. I probably should_ _just ignore him_.

He made his way down the stairwell quietly, padding softly up behind Jean’s chair before realizing he wasn’t sure how to proceed from there.

He looked over his shoulder at his laptop screen, which was currently open with some kind of coding screen in the background. Another window taking up half the screen was open to the internet, but Eren couldn’t quite make out what it said.

Up your game, Mikasa had said. How the hell was he supposed to do that?

 _Here’s to winging it_ , he thought, leaning down to put his face right against Jean’s ear before whispering, “What’re you reading?”

Jean jumped, letting out a choked squeak before slamming his laptop shut. He rounded on Eren with wide eyes, face flushed and clearly embarrassed.

What the hell had he actually been reading?

“E-Eren, jesus, don’t fucking sneak up on me like that,” Jean said, grabbing at his shirt over his heart.

Something about Jean’s reaction made Eren feel confident. He liked knowing he could stir Jean up, even if it was just to startle him.

“Sorry,” he said, stepping forward to sit on the arm of Jean’s chair. “I saw you from upstairs. Just wondered what you were up to was all.”

He watched Jean swallow before his face dropped into a scowl. “Just working on an assignment. Coding. You know, comp sci stuff,” he said in a rush, sliding his laptop into his bag.

Eren hummed noncommittally. “Saw you had the internet open though. What were you reading? It wasn’t something dirty, was it?”

He watched as Jean’s hand froze for a fraction of a second on the zipper, his eyes turning up to level him with a cool look.

“It’s kind of fucking rude to snoop on people,” he said evenly.

Eren raised an eyebrow, unbothered. “You’re in the middle of the library. I didn’t think anything you were doing would be so personal. My bad.”

Jean shrugged, standing and throwing his bag over his shoulder. “Yeah, well—“

“Want to get lunch?”

He tried to ignore the surge of triumph that sang in his veins at having clearly thrown off Jean not once but twice in the last five minutes.

“Uh. Sure. Where did you have in mind?” Jean asked cautiously.

Eren grinned up at him, standing and walking toward the sliding doors. “How about you pick and I’ll pay. Just no pizza today. Where’s your favorite place to eat in town?”

 

\---

 

To Eren’s immense delight, they ended up at a sushi restaurant.

“You never told me you liked sushi,” Eren said once they were settled down at a small table in the corner. The whole restaurant was partitioned off so they couldn’t see any of the other customers or hear much noise.

In short, it was pretty intimate and very much like a date.

“Yeah, well,” Jean said, ruffling his hair and looking intently at the menu.

Eren didn’t even bother opening his. When the waitress approached a minute later, she simply looked at Eren. “The usual?”

He nodded.

Jean looked at him suspiciously but ordered a few different things and a pot of tea. After a brief silence in which Eren sat there looking far too pleased with himself, Jean finally bit.

“Ok, what the fuck. Do you eat here a lot or something?”

“Probably once a week at least.”

“Are you kidding me?”

“No. It’s actually my favorite place to go out and eat.”

Jean looked both relieved and still somewhat skeptical. “Me too. I just found it pretty recently, but they’re miso soup is—“

“It’s the best thing in the entire state. I’ve never been to another place with better miso.”

Eren watched, captivated, as Jean shot him a brief but very genuine smile before ruining the moment and tossing his straw wrapper in Eren’s face.

“You asshole. You should have told me about this place sooner.”

Eren squawked indignantly. “I didn’t know you even liked sushi!”

“Well, now you do. You should take me here more often,” Jean said, tongue flicking out to grab his straw as he took a drink of water.

Eren tried not to focus too hard on the mouth that had given him such a restless night. “R-right. Maybe I will, if you’re not a dick about it.”

By the time their food arrived, they were ensconced in a heated debate about video games and video game systems. They argued over the benefits of PC gaming vs. consoles around mouthfuls of rice and fish, talking loudly enough to bother other customers but also clearly not giving a damn.

In the middle of one of Jean’s tirades about the values of better representation and diversity in Indie games, which he argued were more widely available on PC, Eren stretched forward to lean his leg against Jean’s.

Which lead to a sudden and abrupt silence.

Eren took another bite of sushi, looking up at Jean innocently. “Something the matter?”

He watched heat crawl slowly up Jean’s face, his hands twitching where they rested on the table, before he felt Jean’s leg press back against his own.

“Nope. Everything’s good. Just, uh. Lost my train of thought.”

“Well if you’re done whining about representation then it’s my turn to whine about how stupid I think the concept of paying for DLC is after you _already paid for the game in the first place_ ,” Eren said heatedly, launching another debate.

They never mentioned the leg thing. Neither of them moved, either.

 

\---

 

Several days later and they were apparently at the stage of texting nonstop. About the stupidest shit. And usually at the weirdest times.

[Jean Kirschtein]: do u think minecraft horses were a dumb idea?

[Eren Jaeger]: what? no. they’re an awesome idea.

[Jean Kirschtein]: idk man. it seems stupid.

[Eren Jaeger]: what’s stupid about riding a horse? or breeding horses? what about the mod for pegasus and unicorns and shit?

[Jean Kirschtein]: that just seems like 2 much work. its a waste. we cud have had more water mobs nstead

[Eren Jaeger]: jean it’s 2AM go to sleep jfc.

[Jean Kirschtein]: fine. but im gonna dream abt water mobs and nightmare horses now.

[Eren Jaeger]: sweet dreams you idiot. if you have a nightmare call me and i’ll come rub your back.

[Jean Kirschtein]: dont say things u dont mean.

[Eren Jaeger]: i never do.

And so it continued, verging in the direction of flirting but never quite getting to a point that was ever really more than playful.

That didn’t stop Eren’s mind from going further than that. It didn’t stop his dreams in particular. He had woken up with Jean’s name on his lips more times in the last week than he could count. By Wednesday night he was basically a wreck.

A couple hours after falling asleep, he was woken by a vicious pillow to the face.

“Dude, you are totally having a sex dream right now and I do NOT want to hear it. Go jack off in the bathroom or something,” Connie said, glaring in the dim light of the lamp he’d apparently just kicked on.

Eren was so groggy and out of it he could barely come up with words. “Was not,” was the most intelligible thing he could mumble.

“Dude, look. I don’t know who Jean is, but you clearly do, and you really need to get it out of your system so I can sleep in peace, ok?”

Eren didn’t think he’d ever woken up so fast in his life. He opened his mouth to argue, closed it again when he could come up with nothing. Opened it again and could only squeak weakly.

“You know I think your fish impressions are a riot, Eren, but now is really not the time,” Connie said, flopping back down against the bed in exasperation. “Seriously, go be a man and just take care of business in the bathroom. We’ll all be grateful for it, trust me.”

Blushing to the tips of his toes, Eren crawled out of bed, grabbing his showering towel and wrapping it around him in an effort to cover his awkward boner. “You’re too chill sometimes, Connie.”

“I am the best friend you’ve got, bro. Now be quiet when you come back, I am wiped out and need my beauty sleep. These good looks require work, you know?” he finished, rolling onto his stomach and stuffing a pillow over his head, which was supposedly how Connie slept best.

Eren shook his head, leaving the room to creep quietly down the hall toward the bathrooms. It had to be somewhere around 3AM, and thankfully as a result no one else seemed to be awake.

Once he got to the bathrooms, he was struck with indecision. He wanted some cover noise just in case he was overheard, and he also didn’t feel like touching himself by the toilets (who knew what went on in there anyway).

 _Well, brought my towel with me anyway_ , he decided, walking into the showers and kicking on the water in one of the stalls. He headed over to his shower cubby, pulling out a bottle of conditioner and nothing else before stripping down and walking back to the shower, pulling the curtain shut swiftly behind him.

The water was nice and hot, a rarity most mornings when some 480 people in one building were vying for bathroom time before classes. Eren sighed, closing his eyes and allowing himself to melt under the spray as images from his dream began to flit across his eyelids in a disjointed blur.

He ran a hand through his hair, snaking it down his chest and remembering the time Jean had given him a shove in that exact spot.

Then suddenly he was imagining Jean doing something entirely different to his chest, something involving teeth and tongue and warm, strong hands, and Eren gasped quietly under the spray, feeling himself rapidly hardening.

He reached for the conditioner (a trick Armin had taught him, weirdly enough), smoothing it over his hands before reaching for his length and gasping at the smooth, wet sensation.

He closed his eyes, and suddenly those weren’t his hands, but Jean’s, and that wasn’t the water running down his neck, but Jeans’ lips breathing hot against his skin.

He had a sudden, vivid image of Jean’s mouth opening to take a bite of that pizza only a week ago, pink tongue flicking out to draw it toward himself.

Eren wasn’t a stranger to getting himself off, but the strength and depth of desire that welled up within him was a rush so powerful it nearly brought him to his knees.

He rasped in a breath, his left hand coming to brace himself against the wall, water cascading down the too-sensitive skin of his back and raising goosebumps all along his neck and arms.

 _“Pretty sensitive, aren’t you_ ,” he imagined Jean whispering against his ear, and Eren caught himself on a quiet moan, fist squeezing to pump himself harder, feeling himself rapidly edging toward release after already being so worked up from his earlier dreaming.

“ _And just over the thought of me. Imagine what I could really do, if I were there._ ”

He saw Jean drop to his knees in his minds eye, taking Eren in hand and looking up at him with that cocky, self-satisfied smirk he so often wore before wrapping that delicious-looking mouth around the head of Eren’s cock.

Eren came so hard he didn’t even realize he was moaning until he finally heard it echoing back at him. He was too blissed out to really give a damn if anyone had heard at that point though, leaning his back against the cool tile wall and trying to resist the urge to just slide down and sit on the floor.

Instead he took care to rinse away all evidence of his personal time, turning off the faucet and toweling off in a haze.

He barely remembered making it back to his room and collapsing into bed. The last thing he registered was Connie doing his best snorlax impression before Eren was out.

He slept like the dead for the first time in weeks.

 

\---

 

The next morning, Eren woke up to a buzzing sound, groggily opening his phone to find a text from Jean.

[Jean Kirschtein]: Sleep well, princess?

He starred at the phone in confusion before finally noticing what time it was. He had slept through his first class of the day entirely.

“Shit,” he groaned, dropping his head back against the pillow.

“Not in the dorm room please,” Connie chided from across the room where he was sitting on his bed, leaning against the wall and typing away at his laptop with rapid-fire precision.

“I didn’t even know you were here,” Eren mumbled, reaching to set his phone up on the desk above his head.

“Yeah, just got back from class. Didn’t want to wake you. You looked like you needed the rest,” Connie said, shrugging.

Eren grumbled and rolled over, pulling the blankets up over himself and hoping that would be the end of it.

“Sooo. Who’s Jean?”

He should have known better.

“No one,” his muffled voice grumped from under the blanket.

“If you don’t tell me I’m going to start walking around asking for a Jean that knows an Eren Jaeger. I’ll get Sasha to help me. And you know I’m serious.”

“Oh my god Connie, chill out, jesus,” Eren said, throwing the blanket off himself and glaring up at the ceiling as though it were the root of all of his problems. “Look. I met this guy doing laundry one night and we’re sort of. We’re sort of friends. But possibly more than friends. I’m not really sure, ok? I’m trying to figure it out.”

“Well it sounded like you had it pretty well figured out last night. I could hear you in the shower from clear down the hallway.”

“OH MY GOD, NO. YOU DID NOT.”

Connie was laughing, laptop bouncing dangerously on his knees. “You weren’t exactly quiet dude.”

Eren groaned, throwing his arms over his face. “I hate everything.”

“You don’t hate Jean.”

“I _especially_ hate Jean.”

“Does he hate you?”

“Yes.”

“In the same way you hate him?”

Eren glanced at Connie, a forlorn expression on his face. Connie nodded sympathetically.

“Look, I sort of had a similar problem with Sasha for a long time, you know? Couldn’t tell if we were friends or more than friends, or if she was even into me like that. And you know what? I got tired of moping around for weeks about it.” Eren privately thought that he’d never really seen Connie mope about anything ever. “And I just went for it. And guess what? Best decision of my life. I couldn’t be in a happier relationship than I am with Sasha.”

“Wait, you two are really dating then?”

Connie looked at him like he was both shocked and offended, placing a hand over his heart.

“I’m sorry, ok, I just wasn’t sure! You two are just so… bro-ish with each other,” Eren finished lamely.

“Exactly. She’s absolutely perfect. My dream girl,” Connie said, staring off into space with a smile. Eren rolled his eyes, not sure how he hadn’t been absolutely certain about this before now, because it did seem kind of obvious.

“Speaking of which, I’m going home to visit the parents for the weekend so I can introduce Sasha to the fam,” Connie said.

“Oh. Uh, cool. Good luck. I hope it goes well.”

“Thanks man. But you know, that means you’ll like, have the room to yourself all weekend.”

Eren looked at him blankly.

“In case you want to, you know… invite someone over? Make someone moan besides yourself?”

“Oh my god, Connie, stop.”

“I’m just sayin’ dude, the room is available for all of your needs. Utilize your time wisely,” he added somewhat seriously, standing and setting his laptop down on his desk, which was littered in empty cans of Redbull. “Also, don’t you have a class that starts at 11am?”

“Yeah, why?”

“Well it’s like 10:45, so.”

“ _Shit.”_ Eren leapt out of bed, throwing on pants, a shirt, and a ragged pair of vans before snatching his backpack and rushing out the door.

The nagging thought of having the room all to himself for the weekend slipped to the back of his mind for later consideration. He couldn’t afford to be late for class right now.

 

\---

 

“Armin, look, just be honest with me. Is that like—would that be a terrible idea?” Eren asked into his phone as he paced in front of the civil engineering building, glancing around nervously to make sure no one was listening.

“I think it’s a great idea, honestly,” Armin’s tinny voice said through the speaker in Eren’s ear. “I mean you’ll finally be able to get a real answer from him. And if he’s not interested you can probably convince him to just be friends with you still since he clearly enjoys your company at the very least. Plus, best case scenario,” Eren could hear a small scuffle on the other end of the phone, Mikasa’s voice suddenly loud in his ear. “Best case scenario you’ll finally get laid. You can’t complain about that.”

Eren hummed nervously in agreement, turning to walk back in the direction of the dorms. The sun was going down, and it would be time to meet up for laundry and horror movies soon.

“Mikasa is right, Eren,” Armin said, clearly haven regained control of his phone. “There’s really not a downside to this. Just. Do that thing you do where you just press forward, consequences be damned.”

“Do you mean that thing where I wing it?”

“Yes, that. It seems to have a surprisingly high success rate for you.”

Eren sighed deeply. “Thanks, Armin. I appreciate the help. Tell Mikasa she’s an asshole and I love her.” Eren could hear her singing ‘love you too’ in the background before he hung up the phone.

He took a deep breath, looking up at the dorm building as he rounded the corner.

_Ok. Guess we’re winging it._

 

\---

 

He spent the next several hours fussing around his room, picking up the mess and throwing away the trash that seemed to accumulate there no matter how hard Eren tried to keep it clean. He turned on the lights hanging around the edges of the room, kicked on the desk lamps, and turned off the overhead in an effort to create a semi-romantic atmosphere. He even cracked open the window as an afterthought, hoping to let in some fresh air. Maybe that would help him calm down.

With the way adrenaline was singing through his veins, though, probably not.

At 8:30 sharp, Eren decided to head down to the basement, laundry basket in tow. He didn’t want to seem too eager, but he also didn’t want to keep Jean waiting. He took the stairs, thinking it might help calm him down.

When he reached the bottom of the stairwell, he turned just as the elevator door opened, Jean stepping out and mouth falling open in a little ‘o’ of surprise.

“Hey. Good timing,” Eren said, smiling and gesturing for Jean to walk in ahead of him.

“Yeah, guess so,” he answered, giving Eren that toothy half-grin, sending a spike of desire shooting up his spine.

Eren shifted his laundry basket to cover his front in an effort to cover his growing problem, shuffling in awkwardly after Jean. It reminded him far, far too much of the fun he’d had with dream-Jean last night.

“How was your day?” Eren said instead, voice cracking awkwardly. Jean actually turned to look at him, and at the sight of Eren’s horrified expression, the asshole had the gall to start laughing.

“I see puberty’s treating you well today?” Jean mocked, raising his eyebrows as he dumped detergent into his machine.

Eren gave him a shove, hand lingering a second longer on his arm than was probably acceptable. “Whatever, don’t be an asshole. Which I know will be hard for you, since it’s your default mode and all.”

“Excuse you, I am very charming and kind.”

“Oh yeah? Since when?”

“Since always! Only to people who deserve it though. People who don’t move other people’s laundry around, for example,” Jean said, bumping his hip against Eren’s and sending an electric tingle clear down his legs.

“Want to watch another movie in my room tonight?” Eren blurted, suddenly deciding that _yes_ , he was definitely going to have to do something about this situation. All these tingles and butterflies and bullshit needed to be _addressed_ , and there was only one real way Eren could think to do that.

 _Hell yeah, winging it,_ Eren thought to himself at Jean’s nod, pulling out his phone to set an alarm for them both so they’d remember to come back down and put their clothes in the dryer once the machines were finished.

“What movie did you have in mind this time?” Jean asked cautiously as he followed Eren into the elevator.

“Oh, it’s great, you’re going to love it. It’s called The Descent. It’s about creepy caves,” Eren said, eyes wistful as he remembered just how freaked out Armin had gotten while watching it with him. He hoped Jean was equally freaked out or worse.

“That sounds absolutely terrifying. Are you sure we should watch that one?”

“Positive.”

Fifteen minutes into the movie and Jean was already freaking out.

“Oh no. Oooh no, something bad is going to happen. I hate movies like this,” he hissed, glaring at the screen, eyes intently focused. “They want me to lose my shit at every little thing, but nothing keeps happening, but I _know_ something is going to happen because it’s a horror movie. Goddammit, Eren, why did you pick this shit.”

Eren just laughed, leaning heavily against Jean’s shoulder. “It’s fun to watch you freak out.”

“You’re an absolute asshole and I don’t know why I even talk to you.”

“Probably because I’m cute,” Eren said, simpering and batting his lashes. He knew he had pretty eyes. He wasn’t afraid to use them.

Jean shoved a hand over his face, snorting. “That’s even scarier than the movie.”

“Wow, way to be a dick.”

A girl suddenly screamed on screen and Jean jumped about a foot, grabbing at Eren’s hand, eyes wide.

Eren was briefly frozen, but quickly laced their fingers and let their hands fall between them.

“… oh my god, seriously? Who the fuck yells at their own reflection in the shower. That was bullshit and I’m calling bullshit. Completely unnecessary. What even is this movie,” Jean complained loudly.

Eren noticed he made no move to let go of his hand and gave himself an internal fist-bump, because if things hadn’t been clear before then they were pretty fucking clear now.

They were holding hands. Like for real holding hands. Jean Kirschtein was into Eren. Totally.

 _Gonna fucking WING IT,_ Eren thought victoriously, having absolutely no plan whatsoever but still managing to feel really confident.

Except somehow Eren himself got so sucked into the plot of the movie again that by the time it was over, Jean had practically crawled into his lap and he hadn’t even noticed.

“What the _fuck_ did I just watch,” Jean deadpanned, looking absolutely horrified.

Eren blinked, reality returning to him slowly. He felt the weight of Jean’s legs leaning heavily against his own, Jean’s hand still clenched tightly in his.

“A great movie,” Eren said solemnly, still feeling bad for the characters.

“I am so not going to be able to sleep tonight,” he mumbled, still looking mildly in shock.

“Oh. Well, you can stay here. If you want. I mean, Connie is gone for the weekend, so. Uh,” Eren said, realizing abruptly that that sounded much more like a sleepover than it did something even vaguely romantic, let alone sexual.

Jean turned his head to stare at Eren, and it was only then that Eren noticed just how close their faces even were. Somewhere in the back of his mind it also occurred to him that they had never even ordered pizza, and that their laundry was still in the dryers downstairs.

Mostly it just occurred to him how beautiful Jean’s eyes were.

Yet something kept Eren frozen in place. Despite knowing Jean was probably definitely into him, something inside of him was so afraid to actually bridge that gap, or hell, even just _say_ something about it—

“Eren, what are we doing?” Jean asked, sounding a little broken and confused.

_Wing it, damn it._

“Um. Well I was kind of hoping something really, really gay.”

Jean just stared at him.

“But like, if you’re not actually into that, that’s totally cool too, we can just—“

He was entirely unprepared for Jean to grab his face and kiss him full on the mouth.

He was warm, his breath smelling faintly of the minty gum Jean always seemed to chew, and something about it was so overwhelming Eren almost forgot to breathe.

After a moment Jean pulled away, eyeing Eren with concern. “Was that ok? I mean, is it ok if we—when you invited me to stay I sort of thought you wanted to, um, but if you don’t that’s cool, I can wait—“

“Jesus christ _yes_ I have been dying to do this for _weeks_ ,” Eren rasped, grabbing the front of his shirt and pulling him back in for another kiss. “ _Please_ ,” he breathed against Jean’s mouth.

Eren heard Jean’s breath catch, and the laptop nearly thrown to the floor in haste before Jean was suddenly pushing Eren down and against the cushions of the bed, one hand fisted in Eren’s hair while the other gripped his hip just strong enough to hold him down against the bed, his mouth hot and wet over Eren’s.

“Ok?” he asked breathlessly, pulling back just enough to look Eren in the eyes.

“ _More_ ,” he gasped, reaching up to pull Jean down flush against him while arching his back as much as Jean’s grip would allow.

Jean moaned loudly against his mouth, pressing his hips against Eren’s in a way that sent his head reeling and his heart racing.

Eren ran his hands down Jean’s back, finding the hem of his shirt and slipping his fingers inside to touch bare skin, skin which felt like fire under his palms. Eren had never given much thought to how to please a person, but one thing he was great at doing was fully giving himself over to the moment, and that seemed to work just as well for him.

So when he reached up to wrap his arms around Jean’s shoulders and let his nails scrape lightly along the length of Jean’s back, he was pleased to find that had the reaction he was hoping it would.

“ _Fuck_ ,” Jean swore, grinding down hard against Eren’s straining erection. The fist in his hair pulled back, exposing Eren’s neck, and Eren moaned loudly at the feel of Jean’s tongue and teeth against this throat.

“Why didn’t you tell me sooner? We could have been doing this weeks ago,” he panted hotly in Eren’s ear, goosebumps abruptly rising all along his skin. Eren realized he was so turned on he was shaking with it, couldn’t ever remember being more turned on in his entire life.

“Why didn’t you tell _me_ then, you asshole?” he growled weakly, palming at Jean’s ass through his pants and relishing the sound of Jean’s breath catching in his throat, hips stuttering against his own mindlessly.

Eren quickly leaned up, licking a long stripe along the exposed skin of Jean’s neck and feeling him shudder against him.

“D’you like that?” Eren asked, voice low, grazing his teeth along the sensitive skin beneath his ear as he palmed Jean’s ass, pulling him against him. “Tell me, Jean.”

“Fuck, Eren, _yes_ ,” he cried breathlessly, hips moving against Eren’s own in a very deliberate and steady rhythm now. Eren planted his feet on either side of Jean’s legs, pressing up in an effort to match him and rolling his hips.

He felt Jean cry out beneath his lips and moaned in response, loving the feeling of being able to have this effect on someone and be effected so completely in return. It made him feel powerful, alive, more wholly himself somehow.

“Gonna come for me, Jean?” he asked coyly, pulling back to look Jean in the eye with a smirk.

He gasped when Jean suddenly grabbed him by the jaw, leaning forward and looking at his mouth intently, sliding his thumb roughly along Eren’s bottom lip. “There are better things you could be doing with that mouth,” he said, voice husky with desire.

Without thinking, Eren opened his mouth wider, reaching out his tongue to wrap around Jean’s thumb before drawing it into his mouth and sucking, _hard_.

Jean’s eyes widened, mouth falling open in a silent cry, and Eren realized he was coming above him, hips shuddering against his own. Eren could feel something warm and wet seeping through his pants, could smell the musk of it, making his head swim.

 _I just did that_ , he thought, somehow even more turned on than he already had been as Jean collapsed on top of him. Eren ignored his urge to rut against Jean, instead wrapping his arms around him and burying his face in Jean’s shoulder as he slowly rubbed his back, feeling Jean tremble against him.

“You ok?” he croaked, feeling like his heart was too big for his chest suddenly. Feeling like Jean was somehow far more precious than he had ever been before.

“Mmhmm,” Jean sighed against him, hiding somewhere in Eren’s tangled mass of hair.

When he finally felt Jean stop shaking, he pushed him over slightly and off to his side, turning his head to look at him. “You sure you’re ok? You’re awfully quiet.”

“You fucked the talk right out of me, Eren,” Jean mumbled, mouth turning down in a slight frown, eyes closed.

Eren laughed, which seemed to startle Jean into a state of wakefulness.

“Wait a minute,” Jean said after a moment, reaching down to cup Eren between the legs, earning him a surprised gasp.

“I’m fine, you don’t have to,” Eren rushed to reassure him, torn between the urge to move his hips and the urge to let Jean just relax and sleep because he had never seen Jean’s face look quite so peaceful as it had just a moment ago.

“Oh no, you’re not getting out of this that easily,” Jean murmured, leaning forward to lick languidly at Eren’s mouth.

Eren felt himself shaking again, pressing forward blindly against Jean’s hand as a moan tore itself from his throat.

“God, you’re so hot,” Jean whispered, leaning up to press Eren flat against the bed again before working his way down. “If I knew your mouth could do more than argue, I would have kept it better occupied.”

Eren felt heat creep down his neck and chest, tan skin flushing beneath Jean’s fingers as he leaned back to undo Eren’s zipper.

“You don’t mind if I show you what I can do with _mine_ , do you?” Jean asked, crawling still further down the bed to lay between Eren’s legs.

Eren was fairly certain he’d died and gone to heaven. “P-please?”

“Sure thing,” he said, flashing Eren that toothy, crooked grin he couldn’t seem to get enough of before shimmying Eren’s pants far enough down his legs that he could take him out fully. “God, look at you. Delicious,” he breathed against Eren’s flushed and swollen skin, somehow managing to send tingles all along Eren’s scalp.

Eren’s hands twitched uselessly at his sides, fighting the urge to fist Jean’s hair and tangling in the blankets beside him instead. He couldn’t take his eyes off Jean, who was clearly putting on a show, nuzzling the base of Eren’s cock with his nose and humming pleasantly.

At Eren’s choked sound, Jean looked up at him, feigning curiosity. “I’m sorry, is there something I can help you with?” he asked, breath fanning hotly across the sensitive head of Eren’s cock.

“If you don’t do something right now, I am going to—“ Eren bit out, stopping abruptly as Jean took him in hand, grinning wickedly before sliding his tongue along the underside of Eren’s cock from hilt to tip.

Eren swore, shutting his eyes and slamming his head back against the mattress, moaning at the wet feeling of Jean’s tongue sliding lavishly across his throbbing skin.

“Oh?” Jean asked, pulling back. “Like that, hmm?”

Eren leaned up, opening his mouth to tell Jean _yes, exactly like that, why the hell did you stop_ only for Jean to lock eyes with him, that pink and entirely too erotic mouth sliding over and around him and sending his heart skyrocketing.

“Fuck, Jean, _please_ ,” he begged, hands unconsciously fisting lightly in Jean’s hair. Jean moaned around him at the touch, Eren’s hands spasming as he fought off what he realized was going to be a very fast and abrupt orgasm at this rate.

“Oh, fuck,” he panted, feeling Jean begin to build a slow and brutal rhythm that was exactly the way Eren liked it. “Oh fuck, fuck, Jean, I’m—I’m gonna—“ he warned, pulling at his hair.

Jean just sucked harder, humming against him, tongue flicking against the tip roughly, and that was all it took for Eren to see stars, back arching off the bed as he came harder than he ever had in his life.

When he came back to himself, he looked down to find Jean licking his lips, smirking at nothing in particular and clearly very proud of himself.

“Oh my god, you are filthy, what the fuck,” Eren gasped, still trying to regain his breath.

Jean collapsed on the bed next to him, throwing an arm around Eren and pulling him close. “I think what you mean to say is ‘Thank you Jean for the best orgasm of my life.’”

“Yeah, that too,” Eren breathed, wrapping one arm around Jean’s shoulders lazily and closing his eyes, feeling like he was melting into the mattress.

“Sleep?” Jean asked groggily, grabbing Eren’s comforter from where it had somehow managed to get shoved into the corner of the bed and throwing it over the both of them.

“Mmm,” Eren hummed, readjusting only enough to pull his pants back up. “Sleep,” he agreed.

It was probably the best night of sleep Eren had gotten. Ever.

 

\---

 

The next morning, Eren awoke to a wet feeling. He blinked his eyes open, looking around the room blearily and realizing Jean was sleeping with his head on his chest.

The events of the night before came back in a rush, and Eren smiled to himself, pulling Jean closer and feeling warm from the inside out.

Until he realized the wet feeling was drool. Enough to soak through his shirt.

“Ew, oh my god, that is so gross,” he said, jabbing Jean in the side and starting him awake.

“What the fuck?” he said, voice gravely.

“You were drooling on me, you dick.”

Jean stared at him like he wasn’t sure where he was for a moment, looking from Eren to the wet spot on his shirt. He wiped slowly at his mouth before suddenly grinning. “Oh. Sorry.”

“Don’t say sorry if you don’t mean it. Asshole,” Eren grumbled half-heartedly, peeling his shirt off and tossing it somewhere random before flopping back down. “Get back here and cuddle me.”

Jean snorted but seemed happy to comply, particularly when Eren started lightly tracing circles all along his back and shoulders. He sighed contentedly, melting into the bed and seemingly headed back toward sleep.

“Uh-uh. No more sleeping. It’s like,” Eren paused, craning his neck to look at the clock on his dresser. “It’s 10:30 in the morning. Wake the fuck up.”

“Mmm. No,” Jean grumbled, squeezing Eren tighter. “Comfy.”

“I know, it kind of is,” he agreed sadly before suddenly poking Jean in the ribs again.

“What the fuck, knock it off!” Jean hollered, swatting his hands away.

“Then talk to me,” Eren said seriously.

“Fine. What do you want to talk about?”

“Us.”

Jean swallowed. “Oh.”

“Look,” Eren started, sitting up slightly in bed. “Uh. I just wanted to get this out of the way before,” _before I get too ahead of myself_ , “Before anything else happens. Um. Was that a one-time thing?”

Jean looked at him, face carefully blank. “Did you want it to be a one-time thing?”

“Well. No. But I also don’t want to make you feel like you have to—“

“I have been agonizing for weeks about how to ask you out,” Jean blurted, face heating self-consciously. “I just wasn’t really sure if you were interested in me like that. But yeah. I was kind of hoping to keep you around for longer than one night. If that’s cool with you, I mean.”

Eren felt something in the vicinity of his chest rise up and take off much like he imagined a shooting star might. “That is like. Super, super cool with me.”

“Great. Can I go back to sleep now?”

“… Ok, but only for like another fifteen minutes. I want to introduce you to a couple of people for lunch.”

“Ugh, no, I hate the introducing part.” At Eren’s pleading puppy-dog look, he huffed, flopping back down against the pillows. “ _Fine_. But I want twenty minutes then.”

Eren smiled, settling back down to continue petting Jean’s back. “I guess twenty minutes wouldn’t hurt.”

 

\---

 

“Eren, you are twenty minutes late.”

“Oh my god, it’s not my fault, I swear.”

“I don’t believe you. Who is this?” Mikasa asked, pointing her fork in Jean’s direction as they sat down next to her and Armin at a cafeteria table.

“Um, Mikasa, Armin, this is my—my boyfriend, Jean,” Eren said, chest puffing up in pride and a hum of excitement running through his veins at the word ‘boyfriend’. “Jean, this is my sister, Mikasa, and my best friend, Armin.”

“Nice to finally meet you, Jean,” Armin said, smiling and shaking his hand pleasantly. “We’ve heard so much about you.”

“Oh. Uh.”

“If you hurt him, we will kill you,” Mikasa said, squeezing Jeans’ hand a little tighter than necessary and flexing her muscles, which were very visible in her tank top.

“More like we’ll destroy you, but yes,” Armin said lightly, turning back to take a bite of salad.

“Um. Cool. Nice to meet you too,” he croaked, looking at Eren with a mildly horrified expression.

Eren laughed so hard he choked on his glass of water, spitting most of his mouthful all down the front of his shirt.

“Ew. You are so gross,” Jean said quietly, handing Eren his napkin.

“At least I don’t drool in my sleep,” Eren shot back.

“What’s this about sleeping habits? Why, Eren, how would you know if Jean drools in his sleep or not?” Mikasa asked loudly, chewing on a fry viciously.

Eren glared, wadding up his wet napkin and throwing it at her. “Don’t be a brat, Mikasa. You’ve scared him enough as it is.”

Mikasa huffed her little laugh, smiling. “Sorry. Just happy to see you happy.”

Armin nodded, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “Also, I forgive you for throwing quarters at me.”

Jean made a choked sound.

“Oh my god, Armin, you’re even worse than Mikasa.”

“Sorry, sorry. It’s just too easy.”

Eren reached for Jean’s hand under the table, giving it a reassuring squeeze and grabbing a menu with the other.

After a minute or two of silence, Eren casually asked, “So, who wants to watch The Exorcist later?”

Jean groaned weakly.

Eren laughed, pulling his arm behind him and leaning toward Jean to kiss him on the cheek. Jean rubbed at his face as though offended, but Eren could see him fighting off a smile.

 _Winged it_ , Eren thought.

**Author's Note:**

> Want to be tumblr buddies? Come and say hello. xenophonspeaks.tumblr.com


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